Royal style: the Sussexes in Africa - it's gonna take a lot to drag us away from them...

[QueenOfTheAndals]

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Tour itinerary

As always, let's critique the clothes and not the wearers.

I don't do smart, sensible dressing but even I could happily wear McQueen coat dresses as my uniform.

“It's like watching a performance.“

Well it is, really, isn’t it? They are all performing all the time they’re in public. I actually think Kate looks much more obviously performery because she seems much less confident, particularly when public speaking. Meghan was an actress after all- she will have learned how to present herself.
Both of them need to stop the hair fiddling- as I said before- if they were my dd I’d be saying “come here and i’ll plait your hair!”

Whoops, just saw my post quoted and spotted a grammatical typo - for clarity I did not think the High Commissioner's speech was rude, only the talking through it!

It must be very hard to come across as 100% natural and not develop any nervous habits (such as hair fiddling) when you know you're being scrutinised every time you leave the house and every little thing you do will be analysed to bits.

It must be very hard to come across as 100% natural and not develop any nervous habits (such as hair fiddling) when you know you're being scrutinised every time you leave the house and every little thing you do will be analysed to bits.

Absolutely this. For both Kste and Meghan.

I’ve watched clips where they have walked into it out of buildings and the clicking noise of the camera shutters alone seems very intimidating. Add to that the jostling and running around of photographers trying to get the better angle, the security people, their assistants, the public. How can anyone be expected to behave anything other than unnaturally?

This wall of photographers was what greeted Kate and William after George's birth. I mean sure, Kate knew what she was getting into when she married William, but I challenge anyone to not feel slightly intimidated by it!

Looking at royal engagements for the week ahead (there's a sentence I never thought I'd write!) and we may be in for some Kate glamour on Wednesday night as she and William are attending an event showcasing Pakistani culture at the Aga Khan Centre.

However, I know I will be torn to shreds for this but watching Meghan she just looks like she's acting all the time. The way she moves, her expressions, the constant fiddling with the hair. It really irritates me. It's like watching a performance

You should be allowed to make the observation although perhaps this is not the right type of thread on which to make it.
Difficult to know where to masked your point, though, given that other threads on the subject and the subjects are soon removed.

where to make

Those on AIBU, I mean.

“You should be allowed to make the observation”
Of course she can make the observation! Why on earth would it be deleted?

Ask her.

They are on show the whole time though. Imagine if they stopped doing that, and looked openly bored at yet another set of primary school children doing a little dance number, or side-eyed some local worthy droning on about traffic cones, or allowed it to show on their faces when they had crippling period pain or their feet were on fire from those heels... all hell would break loose. But if you want the real person you would have to accept the rough edges that every single human being has - I defy anyone to be as genuinely interested and engaged as Royals are supposed to be with every single thing they do and not occasionally have a headache or a snotty cold. Or be openly weirded out by things like people queuing to watch them walk past on their way to church or whatever, cordoned off like they’re in a safari park. Concealing those very natural human emotions is surely a performance, and it’s what we want. Can’t have it both ways!

There’s a fantastic bit of video of Princess Anne on a Royal Tour with Charles when she was about 17 doing a proper teenage strop...

@BertrandRussell and isn't there footage of Charles calling a BBC reporter (poss Nicholas Witchell) a "bloody awful man" or something like that? He was considerably older than 17 at the time though!

I fell down a YouTube wormhole and found an old .

Imagine if Prince William went to the test match the day after Charlotte was born or if George was driven to see her while sitting on Carole's lap in the front seat of the car!

That’s brilliant. I think there used to be a 21 gun salute for a boy and 18 (or something) for a girl.....

is the Ptincess Anne documentary with the strop in it. It’s brilliant. Some proper weasels of press people in it. Worth a watch if you have 50 minutes to spare.

It's like watching a performance

But that is what it is for everyone, when doing their job, to an extent isn't? Even more so when you know a camera will be trained on you the whole time.

Many people aren't really their true self when doing their job. They are playing a role.

I don't see her as being any different really to the way she is as any of the other members of the RF, especially when it is relatively new on in the role.

Charlotte looks like her I think.

Is the strop when she was in Washington? She was in her twenties.

Actually- I wonder if the reason people think Meghan looks fake is because she is better at performing than the others? Subconsciously we’re thinking “Oh, pull the other one-nobody enjoys watching folk dancing that much!” With the others we’re getting subliminal cues that show us they aren’t.

Lol, maybe that’s it Bert.

Again, the difference between the ‘blood’ Royals and the married-ins though... can you imagine the pearl clutching if Kate or, god forbid, Meghan had let so much as an unfavourable look slip at a journo, never mind making a Prince Charles style comment?! I do believe that Sarah Vine would spontaneously combust (actually, do it, do it for the team, Duchesses!)

Actually- I wonder if the reason people think Meghan looks fake is because she is better at performing than the others? I think you've hit on something here.

Kate used to be criticised for looking openly bored (maybe she was, not that I'd blame her) at the beginning. I don't think it's a criticism you can make anymore.

A royal looking happy and involved is good, even if it is a 'performance'.

The DM are saying this is Autumn sat next to HM. But it's Serena isn't it?
Queen attends Sunday church service at Balmoral with Autumn Phillips
<a class="break-all" href="http://go.mumsnet.com/?xs=1&id=470X1554755&url=mol.im/a/7517475" target="_blank">https://mol.im/a/7517475

Anyhow. I like her hat whoever it is.